Article: Strip club wins $1.4 million in zoning dispute: state given final say in mine reclamation oversight process.(smara)

A divided appellate court panel has upheld a 2004 regulation that gives the director of the state Department of Conservation the final say over whether reclamation of a surface mine has fulfilled the mine's reclamation plan.

Mining and aggregate interests contested the regulation adopted by the State Mining and Geology Board. They argued that under the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA), the local agency is the lead agency, and only it can determine when reclamation is complete.

But in a 2-1 decision, the Third District Court of Appeal disagreed, ruling, "[W]e discern no clear legislative intent that lead agencies should have exclusive power to ...

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